Chicken blind in one eye

[irsmun]

Out of the blue about a week ago one of my chickens was closing her eye. I opened her eyelid to see her iris red and a small white dot near the middle. It looked like an injury though I didn't know what. I flushed her eyes out with contact solution and applied triple antibiotic ointment a few times. There were no changes. I never saw drainage and I think it may be mildly swollen though I am new to chickens. She used to be feisty and near the top of the order but now she keeps to herself and is not very active. She seems to be drinking but eating less. I am not sure if its because she is not hungry or that she is avoiding the other birds.

Checking today I saw that her eye is completely white. I don't know what this means. Is it just blind or is there something I need to do for her? My best guess it that she got pecked by one of the other birds.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I'm thinking that's pus and that her eye is infected. It looks quite swollen, too. I had a chick with an infected eye. I took her to a vet who cleaned out all the white stuff and put her on antibiotics both orally and via eye ointment. Is a vet an option? If not, you can try cleaning out all the white and treating with antibiotic ointment. Oh - I believe Vetericyn comes in an eye ointment, too. You can also use fish mox or get antibiotics without a prescription. I just google "baytril no prescription."

 

[irsmun]

Just an update.

Within an hour or so of removing the pus this morning she started acting like herself. It was quite extraordinary. She was eating and hanging out with everyone else and being active. It was a major change in her countenance. I am amazed at how quickly that happened.

So this afternoon I opened her eye to reapply antibiotic ointment and found some light yellowish goo. Not sure if it was pus reforming or just eye gunk from the trauma. It wasn't much but I don't want to let anything reestablish. Either way I flushed her eye again, wiped out the small amount of gunk and reapplied salve. I am just watching her.

 

[azygous]

I've watched a chicken eye go blind. It occurred very quickly over just a few hours. The eye began as a cloudy film that gradually turned completely white. The hen was sick overall, and had conjunctivitis. I flushed it and used terramycin but the eye went blind so quickly, I wasn't able to help her.

If there's pus in the eye, it can fool you into believing the eye has gone blind when it's really just buried under a thick layer of pus. The pus must be removed in order to save the eye because it contains bacteria and that can't be allowed to remain.

To remove the pus, you need to glove up, be sure you don't have long sharp nails that can harm the eye, and then exert slight pressure on the tissue surrounding the eye, pushing the pus toward the edge of the eye where it can be wiped away with a soft cloth soaked in saline eye wash. Once all the pus is expressed and removed, flush again with proper eye saline wash and then use terramycin antibiotic eye ointment in the eye twice a day.

Contact lens solution is not formulated to be used as an eye wash. Reserve it for that use only, and buy some eye wash.

 

[irsmun]

I saw several "apply pressure" videos. It did not work like that with her. It doesn't look like a wad of pus. It looks like its her eye that has turned white (see picture) or at the very least has a cap of pus over it. I did remove something. I have no way of knowing if I was supposed to or not. After I sensed I was hurting her, I stopped. I'd like to get something more accurate as to what is happening. I can get more and better pictures tomorrow. If its blind, fine, I'll leave it alone. But if I need to do something I'd like to find out. I don't want to leave her with an infection as I figure that will eventually lead to her demise.

 

[irsmun]

That's interesting that you said that there would be more pus under the pus. That is exactly what I experienced. When I lifted the top layer I saw another layer underneath. That makes me feel like I was doing ok. I had her wrapped in towel. I will need more hands when I do this. Someone to hold her beak as she tried to pull her head inside the towel. So I'm going for it tomorrow. I will get ahold of some saline solution. Hopefully walmart will be open on the 4th. Thank you for walking me through this.

 

[irsmun]

Operation successful. I pulled loose a small yellow cap resembling a yarmulke. And you were correct I was not being aggressive enough, though I was using tweezers the first go around, so that was probably good.

Using the cotton was not affecting anything at first. The key was pulling her eyelid up high enough that I could attack the side of the pus. Once there, in about 2-3 strokes, it just came right out. There was no other pus in the side areas that I could see. Her eye looks weird. I hope I did not damage it on the first go round.

Also helping was that I zip tied her feet together and folded them back before wrapping in the towel. That made a ton of difference since she could no longer use her legs for leverage.

Does it look clean? I don't know what all this is supposed to look like.

 

[azygous]

The eyes don't look normal. Whether they are on their way to being blinded, time will tell. Good job!

Now, you need to flush the eyes with saline twice a day and put the antibiotic ointment in them twice a day.

I forget, is she on an oral antibiotic? Tylan? If not, it might be a good idea.

 

[azygous]

If the pus comes back, you might want this. https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30E07BC1-7B6A-11D5-A192-00B0D0204AE5

 

[azygous]

That's remarkable! I just love it when a patient responds so well! It has made my day!

Tylan 50 is an injectible. But we give it orally to chickens since injecting it is corrosive to tissues. You will need a needle syringe to extract the dose, but then you twist off the needle and use the syringe orally.